Apple's web browser is a cross-platform tool that brings competition to Chrome and Firefox

Mac and iPhone users will be familiar with Safari, but for a long time the web browser race for PC owners was a two horse race between Firefox and Internet Explorer. With the addition of Opera, Google Chrome and Apple Safari to the competition, there is now plenty of choice for web surfers. Available for both Windows and Mac, Safari boasts a familiar Apple look and feel, and brings a number of interesting features to the table.

Integrated support for PDF files means that there is no need to install a dedicated tool to view such documents when they are encountered online and the browser also makes it easy to return to sites you have previously visited. Safari logs each of the sites you visit and presents them in an iTunes style interface known as Cover Flow. This means that as well as using keywords to track down sites, it is also possible to browse through site preview images to allow for quick identification. In a similar vein, the Top Sites feature provides a graphical representation of your favourite web sites which can be visited with a single click.

With support for new, emerging and established web technologies, Safari is a browser with a strong focus on performance as well as security. Features, speed and good looks mean that Apple's web browser is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore and is well worth taking for a test drive.

Safari for Lion v6 is a brand new version. Key improvements found in Safari 6 for Lion include a unified search and Address bar, bringing Safari into line with rival browsers. It also sees the introduction of an Offline Reading List, Do Not Track privacy feature and new password pane.

Verdict:

Safari is everything a web browser should be and more. Whether it is your primary browser or not, it is well worth installing.

There's a vast amount to learn, of course, and that's even before you start building your game. But there's plenty of documentation, tutorials, demos and sample projects to point you in the right direction.

The package is now entirely free, too - no annoying limitations, nag screens or anything else. Epic now only requires that you pay a 5% royalty after the first $3,000 of revenue per product per quarter. And even then, you "pay no royalty for film projects, contracting and consulting projects such as architecture, simulation and visualization."

8.48 brings:
- Optimized grass rendering and procedural foliage system preview
- Plugins available in Marketplace
- Improved accuracy for motion blur
- New Tone Mapper
- Support for all the latest VR hardware including Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Steam VR and HTC Vive, Leap Motion, and Sony's Project Morpheus for PlayStation 4
- "Scrubbable" network replays with rewind support and live time scrubbing
- Visualize the memory footprint of game assets in an interactive tree map UI